"It is in their purely physical aspect, as complex processes of corporeal change, that [physical processes] are means to the maintenance of life: but so long as we confine our attention to their corporeal aspect,āregarding them merely as complex movements of certain particles of organised matterāit seems impossible to attribute to these movements, considered in themselves, either goodness or badness. I cannot conceive it to be an ultimate end of rational action to secure that these complex movements should be of one kind rather than another, or that they should be continued for a longer rather than a shorter period. In short, if a certain quality of human Life is that which is ultimately desirable, it must belong to human Life regarded on its psychical side, or, briefly, Consciousness."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Philosophers from EnglandEconomists from EnglandFeminists from EnglandAuthors from EnglandUtilitarians
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Book 3, chapter 14, section 3 (7th ed., 1907)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Henry_Sidgwick
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Henry Sidgwick
Henry Sidgwick (31 May 1838 ā 28 August 1900) was an English utilitarian philosopher and economist.
22 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Henry Sidgwick ā
Related Quotes
"Each person is morally obliged to regard the good of anyone else as much as his own good, except when he judges it toā¦"
"We have next to consider who the āallā are, whose happiness is to be taken into account. Are we to extend our concernā¦"
"How far we are to consider the interests of posterity when they seem to conflict with those of now-existing human beiā¦"
"A universal refusal to propagate the human species would be the greatest of conceivable crimes from a Utilitarian poiā¦"
"it is reasonable for a Utilitarian to praise any conduct more felicific in its tendency than what an average man woulā¦"
"Platoās reason for claiming that the life of the Philosopher has more pleasure than that of the Sensualist is palpablā¦"
"it seems scarcely extravagant to say that, amid all the profuse waste of the means of happiness which men commit, theā¦"
"Is it total or average happiness that we seek to make a maximum?...we foresee as possible that an increase in [populaā¦"
"Many religious persons think that the highest reason for doing anything is that it is Godās Will: while to others āSeā¦"
"The good of any one individual is of no more importance, from the point of view...of the Universe, than the good of aā¦"